Gjeilo, Unicornis Captivatur Unicornis Captivatur comes from the Engelberg Codex, a manuscript at the Benedictine Abbey of Engelberg in Switzerland. The manuscript dates from about 1400 and contains early German sacred music collected over a period of years. The Latin text is an adaptation of … Read more
As if Holy Week were not intense enough, a new ingredient is shaping my thoughts today. Truth be told it’s not new but, rather, has gained more of a “fine point” in recent days. In short, I’ve located the exact birth city of my maternal … Read more
Josef Rheinberger, Kyrie from Mass in E-Flat Josef Rheinberger (1839-1901) is known primarily for his 20 organ sonatas. His writings extend well beyond organ works, however, and include two symphonies, concertos, chamber music, two operas plus other dramatic works, masses, cantatas, motets, and Lieder. Most … Read more
I’ve reached that final moment of editing a book—the one where the text manifests as a living breathing person and starts slugging me in the face. — Richard Due That’s a pretty good description of editing—at least the kind I like best wherein the author, … Read more
For our final chapter of Music for the Seasons, we present Music for Spring. Composers, like poets, revel in spring images, setting poems about spring into songs and turning the colors and fragrances of spring, as well as her unpredictable weather, into spans of orchestral color, rhythmic motion, … Read more
Down in the River to Pray The origin of this well-known song is not clear. It has been described as a Spiritual, a Gospel hymn, and an Appalachian folk song. Musically it seems to have elements of all of those genres. Perhaps its popularity comes … Read more
Only yesterday did I realize that one of my favorite “Russian” artists was Ukrainian. While Tatiana Yablonska died at age 88 in Kyiv (Kiev) after an illustrious career, her birthplace was Smolensk, an ancient city founded in the 11th century during the period known as … Read more
François Couperin, Leçons de tenèbres François Couperin (1668-1733) is known as “le Grand” to distinguish him from several other members of his family that were important musicians of the time. We featured his uncle Louis Couperin in this series last summer. The Couperin family was … Read more
Singing is as old as the world. Men sang as they plowed the fields. Women sang as they washed and ironed. Young people sang at husking bees. Soldiers sang as they marched. On sultry evenings, families sang on front porches, accompanied by banjos, guitars, and … Read more
Górecki, Totus Tuus Henryk Mikołaj Górecki (1933-2010) was not among the composers I studied during my years of higher education. We spent quite a lot of time with his fellow Pole and contemporary Krysztof Penderecki, but Górecki‘s works had, for the most part, not yet … Read more